PREMEDITATED MERGER

National borders erased
for airlines in new plan

Aeromexico could get approval
to fly Los Angeles-Toronto route

A new plan being discussed among officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada essentially would erase national borders in North America for air carriers, perhaps giving Aeromexico a pass to run a Los Angeles-Toronto route or Air Canada to compete on the New York-Paris connection, according to WND columnist Jerome Corsi.

He reported on a meeting held in Tucson, Ariz., involving U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and her Mexican and Canadian counterparts.

She’s already under fire, as WND has reported, for continuing work on a program that could start as early as July 15 to give Mexican truckers a virtual free pass to travel on United States roads.

The meeting in Tucson, called the North American Transportation Trilateral, made it clear U.S. air transportation facilities also are being reviewed in light of proposed traffic from foreign carriers that also are based in North America, Corsi’s report noted.

Peters met with Mexico’s Secretary of Commerce and Transportation Luis T?llez and Canada’s Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications Lawrence Cannon to define under the Security and Prosperity Partnership a North American transportation system that will meet the continental needs of “free trade” agreements including NAFTA and the World Trade Organization, he reported.

Peters noted that existing agreements with Mexico and with Canada already work to lift restrictions on continental travel to provide for “free and open trans-border air travel.”

But the next step, a North American Open Skies agreement, would virtually eliminate those national boundaries, as far as air carriers are concerned, Corsi reported.

The plan that was revealed shows over the next 10 years, “Air Canada could be competing with U.S. carriers on the New York-Paris route and Aeromexico might be launching flights between Los Angeles and Toronto.”

Canada’s government also noted that it is committed to “the future of our shared transportation interests in an increasingly globalized world.”

The vision for a North American transportation system suited for world trade, Corsi reported, was articulated in the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations report entitled, “Building of a North American Community.”

That is to “establish a seamless North American market for trade,” including “open skies and open highways.”